Staying at the Bowmore distillery cottages in Islay

On my recent trip to Islay my wife and I stayed at the Bowmore distillery's cottages.  They were initially built to house special guests of the distillery but were later made available to the general public.  It wasn't the best time of year to visit and we missed out on the wonderful garden and seaside views simply because of the chill in the air,  but after a few days of hotel jumping and a nightmare drive through Edinburgh a couple nights earlier the Bowmore Garden Cottage was a wonderful place to rest and enjoy the little town of Bowmore.

A part of the cottage rental we received a bottle of 12 Year Old Bowmore, some whisky fudge and a free tour of the distillery.  Unfortunately we missed the tour because of our tight schedule, and not all the Bowmore Scotch was carried home with us (we left it for the cleaning staff at the Holiday Inn in Edinburgh - cheers!). But the cottage felt like home more than any other stop on the trip.  We enjoyed a Disney movie, "The Absent Minded Professor," which I hadn't seen since childhood on the DVD player (a nice selection of Disney Movies came with the cottage as well).  The staff of the Bowmore distillery were very friendly and helpful.

The cottage did not have a phone for some odd reason, but we did have the only free WIFI on the trip.  The problem with the free WIFI was that we were missing a power transformer to charge our phones, so the iPhones, now with Internet connectivity, were slowly losing power.  By day 2 they were flat dead.

The Harbor Inn is a mere 100 steps away from the Bowmore Cottage's front door (my wife counted) although at the tail end of November the night walk brings such a bitter chill that we almost turned back.  The Inn is probably the top rated eatery on Islay, and we had a wonderful dinner there on the first night in although it felt a bit peculiar due to the lack of customers during the low season.  What additionally made the dinner strange was that when we made the reservation they made it sound like they had to squeeze us in.  

Bowmore made a great centrally located town as well.  We were about a 20 minute drive from either end of the island so the trip to Port Ellen was a straight shot and the drive to Port Charlotte at the other end was nearly as easy.  Unfortunately our phone situation (having none that worked) almost became an issue when the ferry that was to leave from Port Ellen was redirected to another port due to the poor weather and we had to race from port to port and just made the ferry before they set sail, but the quick drive on the skinny roads worked in our favor.

So thank you to the Bowmore for the great hospitality and warm accommodations.  Hope we make it back again soon.